With more than 29,000 retail stores in 76 countries, Starbucks uses a CRM system called My Starbucks Idea, which is powered by Salesforce. The system, which includes an interactive forum, gives the Starbucks community an online presence and allows the company to collect feedback from its customers. It also integrates the company’s physical stores with social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google.

On the system’s Web site (www.mystarbucksidea.com (Links to an external site.)) customers offer ideas, make comments, and cast votes on issues arranged into three major categories: product ideas, experience ideas, and involvement ideas.

The system enables Starbucks to receive a steady stream of feedback and ideas from, and at the same time strengthening the bond with, its customers, which helps the bottom line. As of the first quarter of 2016, the system had collected more than 227,000 ideas, and many of them have already been implemented by Starbucks. My Starbucks Idea is a crowdsourcing success story. MyStarbucksidea website has since been taken down, but you can still visit the following link ( http://www.starbucksmelody.com/2017/05/31/starbucks-nixes-mystarbucksidea-community-can-still-submit-ideas/ ) for a glimpse of what the experience was like.

What is My Starbucks Idea?

What has the Starbucks CRM achieved? How does it help the bottom line?

Which software platform is behind the Starbucks CRM system?

Is My Starbucks Idea a typical crowdsourcing project? Discuss.